Swara

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The notes, or swaras, of Indian music are Shadjamam, Rishabham, Gandharam, Madhyamam, Panchamam, Dhaivatam and Nishadam. Collectively these notes are known as the sargam, the Indian solfege. In singing, these become Sa, Ri(Carnatic) or Re(Hindustani), Ga, Ma, Pa, Da(Carnatic) or Dha(Hindustani), and Ni. ("Sargam" stands for "Sa-R(i,e)-Ga-M(a)"). Only these syllables are sung, and further designations are never vocalized. When writing these become, S, R, G, M, P, D, N. A dot above a letter indicates that the note is sung one octave higher, a dot below indicates a note one octave lower.

In certain forms of Indian classical music and quwalli, when a rapid, 16th note sequence of the same note is to be sung, sometimes different sylables are used in a certain sequence to make the whole easier to pronounce. For example instead of "sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa" said very quickly, it might be "sa-da-da-li-sa-da-da-li" which lends itself more to a quick and light tongue movement.

Indian Music
Indian classical music
Carnatic music
Composers
List of Carnatic composers
Singers
List of Carnatic singers
Hidustani music
Modern music
Filmi music
Folk music (Indian)
Concepts
Śruti
Raga
Melakarta
Katapayadi sankhya
Swara
Tala
Mudra

[edit] Classification of swaras

Although the sapta swara contains only seven kinds of notes, each member of these(Sa, Ri or Re, Ga etc.) may designate up to two different pitches. The exceptions are Sa and Pa, which are fixed. The basic mode of reference is that which is equivalent to the Western Ionian mode (this is called Bilawal thaat in Hindustani music). All relationships between pitches follow from this basic arrangement of intervals. In any given seven-tone mode, the second, third, sixth, and seventh notes can be natural (shuddha, lit. 'pure') or flat (komal, 'soft') but never sharped, and the fourth note can be natural or sharp (tivra) but never flatted, making up the twelve notes in the Western equal tempered chromatic scale (but without Western pitch equivalencies like, for example, A# and Bb). When abbreviating these tones, the form of the note which is relatively lower in pitch always uses a lowercase letter, while the form which is higher in pitch uses an uppercase letter. So komal Re uses the letter r and shuddha Re, the letter R, but shuddha Ma uses m because it has a raised form--tivra Ma--which uses the letter M. Sa and Pa always are always abbreviated as S and P, respectively, since they cannot be altered. If a note with the same name--Sa, for example--is an octave higher than the note represented by S, an apostrophe is placed to the right: S'. If it is an octave lower, the apostrophe is placed to the left: 'S. Apostrophes can be added as necessary to indicate the octave: for example, ``g would be the note komal Ga in the octave two octaves below that which begins on the note S (that is, two octaves below g). (In some cases, rather than apostrophes, a dot above the note is used to indicate upper octave and a dot below lower octave. In addition, sometimes upper- and lowercase letters are replaced with accent marks or lines above or below the letter indicating komal and tivra). The chart below assumes Sa to be at C, although the tone Sa is not associated with any particular pitch. As in Western moveable-Do solfege, Sa refers to the tonic of a piece or scale rather than to any particular pitch.

Full form (Carnatic)	Abbreviated form (Carnatic)	Full form (Hindustani)	Abbreviated form (Hindustani)	Western
Shadja	Sa	Shadj	Sa	C
Suddha Madhyama	Suddha Ma	Shuddha Madhyam	Ma	F
Prati Madhyama	Prati Ma	Tivra Madhyam	M'a	F#
Panchama	Pa	Pancham	Pa	G

[edit] What they mean

Each shuddha swara (i.e., Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, and Ni) is traditionally held to have originated in the sound of a different animal, and some have additional meanings of their own. Also, each swara is associated with one of the seven chakras of the body. Just as the swaras ascend through the saptak, so they are mapped onto the chakras in the body in ascending order. Komal notes are associated with the left side of each chakra; the left channel, Ida Nadi, is the side of emotion and intuition. Shuddha and tivra notes are associated with the right side; the right channel, Pingala Nadi, is the side of logic. Ragas, therefore, have more or less of an effect on a given chakra depending on the notes they contain.

Swara	Expansion	Meaning	Animal	Chakra
Sa	Shadja (षड्जं)	--	peacock	mūlādhāra मूलाधार (anus)
Ri	Rishabha (रिषभं)	bull	bull/skylark	svādhiṣṭhāna स्वाधिष्ठान (genitals)
Ga	Gandhara (गान्धारं)	--	goat	maṇipūra मणिपूर (solar plexus and stomach)
Ma	Madhyama (मध्यमं)	middle	dove/heron	anāhata अनाहत (heart and lungs)
Pa	Panchama (पंचमं)	fifth	cuckoo/nightingale	viśuddha विशुद्ध (throat)
Da	Dhaivata (धैवतं)	--	horse	ājñā आज्ञा (third eye)
Ni	Nishada (निषादं)	outcast/hunter	elephant	sahasrāra सहस्रार (crown of the head)